chemistry

Pomona College Organic Farm

Pomona College Organic Farm is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pomona College Organic Farm rather than just read about it. In short: The Pomona College Organic Farm is an organic campus farm on 1.2 acres (0.49 ha) of the southeast corner of Pomona College's campus in Claremont, California. It is within Blanchard Park (more commonly known as "the Wash").

Key takeaways

Pomona College Organic Farm belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pomona College Organic Farm to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pomona College Organic Farm from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Pomona College Organic Farm is an organic campus farm on 1.2 acres (0.49 ha) of the southeast corner of Pomona College's campus in Claremont, California. It is within Blanchard Park (more commonly known as "the Wash"). It was begun as an experimental permaculture project by a group of three friends in 1998, and was institutionalized in 2006.

History

The farm was begun in 1998, when students began composting dining hall waste and planting crops in an unused portion of campus. Masanobu Fukuoka's book The One Straw Revolution provided the initial inspiration. One student remained on campus to tend to the farm over the summer, but, according to the farm's website, only a single tomato grew. Over the next few years, students from the "Gorilla Farming Club" worked to improve the nitrogen content of the soil and remove rocks. During this time, the farm developed a reputation as an activist space, with extensive marijuana smoking, squatting, and other exploits. This, combined with the farm's unofficial status, led to strained relations with the college's administration. In 2002, students constructed an earth dome using Nader Khalili's superadobe designs, but the college demolished it at the start of the fall 2002 semester because of safety and permitting concerns. In April 2003, plans began for a new, institutionally-approved Earth Dome, which was completed in 2005. In May 2006, the farm and the college reached an agreement on rules for the farm, and it has since become institutionalized and expanded to include the East Farm.

Layout The farm occupies 1.2 acres (0.49 ha) of the far southeastern corner of Pomona College's campus, within the naturalistic portion of the campus known as "the Wash" (formally Blanchard Park). It is split into two halves, separated by the college's hammer throw field. The West Farm includes the superadobe Earth Dome, as well as a number of fruit trees, rock-lined student plots, an outdoor classroom, and a chicken coop. The East Farm has a 162-square-foot greenhouse and is used to grow crops and compost waste. A number of coast live oak trees dot the area.

Operations

The farm is predominantly run by students. It grows some of the food used in Pomona's dining halls, composts dining hall waste, operates a food stand, and facilitates a course on agriculture in the college's environmental analysis program. It also hosts a number of events, including an annual "FarmFest", and provides a space for quiet retreat. It is funded by proceeds from produce sales, the Associated Students of Pomona College, and the Environmental Analysis Department. Pomona alumnus Ronald Lee Fleming has also donated to the farm, funding a statue.

Reception A 2023 critique of campus farms in The Nation described the farm as "as visually appealing as it is functional" and highlighted its teaching function, but also questioned its non-native vegetation and water consumption.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pomona College Organic Farm

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pomona College Organic Farm claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pomona College Organic Farm before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pomona College Organic Farm ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pomona College Organic Farm

In research: Pomona College Organic Farm appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pomona College Organic Farm in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pomona College Organic Farm is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1998 establishments in California, Adobe buildings and structures in California, Experimental farms in the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pomona College Organic Farm outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pomona College Organic Farm in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pomona College Organic Farm means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pomona College Organic Farm out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pomona College Organic Farm in simple terms?

Why does Pomona College Organic Farm matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pomona College Organic Farm?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pomona College Organic Farm.